Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Pyramid Selling

James Heappey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department acts as the enforcement authority for the criminal offences defined in Part XI of the Fair Trading Act 1973 and in consequent trading schemes regulations and exemptions; and if he will make statement.

Nick Boles: Breaches of the Trading Schemes legislation (i.e. the Fair Trading Act 1973 and the regulations made under it) would be referred to the lawyers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ Criminal Enforcement to determine whether or not a criminal investigation should be undertaken. The matter may also be referred to the Insolvency Service, to investigate and ascertain whether the offending company should be wound up in the public interest. The 1973 Act does not confer an express enforcement duty on any particular body, however this Department would look to bring a case in appropriate circumstances. Otherwise, enforcement could fall to Trading Standards or possibly the Competition Markets Authority should widespread malpractice be suspected.

Social Security Benefits

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, from what funding stream he plans to fund educational providers to provide training to jobseeker's allowance and universal credit claimants mandated to improve their English skills.

Nick Boles: Jobseekers referred by jobcentres to improve their English language skills will be funded through the core adult education participation budget.

Students: Finance

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department's consultation on a new system of maintenance support for higher education students wishing to study part-time from 2018-19 will be launched.

Joseph Johnson: The consultation will be launched in the new year.

Students: Finance

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether part-time students applying for maintenance support from 2018-19 will continue to be eligible for benefits.

Joseph Johnson: Eligibility criteria and specific rules of the scheme will be set out as part of the consultation.

Students: Finance

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 7.3 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what the evidential basis is for the statement that 150,000 part-time students could benefit each year from a new system of maintenance support by 2020.

Joseph Johnson: This will be a new product, which is likely to differ from previous packages for part time students. It is therefore difficult to accurately assess its potential impact at this stage. The figures given are an initial central estimate of the number of students who could benefit from the new scheme consisting of the current numbers of students together with an element of modest growth. We have announced we will consult on the detail of the package and this will enable respondents to submit evidence on the potential numbers of students benefiting from the proposals.